Create The Content Even If Someone Else Did Already
My Take On The Knicks In The NBA Finals
Every platform I open, every TV channel I switch to, or radio station I tune to, if I’m on long enough, there’s going to be a story about the Knicks reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in twenty-seven years. An argument can be made that I should not write about them in this article, but I am going to nonetheless because no one can tell the story I am going to tell.
The last time the Knicks were in the NBA finals was 1999. I had just wrapped up my time at Tufts University and was back home, living with my parents in New York City. My parents were still alive and well as this preceded the arrival of any of the cancer diagnoses that would cast a long shadow on my life and send me into a long era of survival mode. Optimism abounded, for me with sights on a graduate program that would prepare me for a career in Higher Education. For my parents, who now had two daughters with the types of education they believed would provide them financial stability and opportunity in life. And for our city who was seeing our Knicks reach the NBA finals for the second year in a row and believed that this time could be our time. Let’s remember that this was also pre 9/11, the most devastating experience the city has ever endured.
While a lot of people are creating social media content about how much they love the Knicks, no one else will write about the fact that I converted my mom into the biggest Knicks fan in our house. She stopped watching games with my dad because his channel flipping during the commercial breaks annoyed her. The risk of missing any second of play was too unsavory to her hoop-loving palette. It is left to me to write about the fact that I haven’t watched the Knicks, or basketball in general, in the same way since she passed and that it wasn’t until this team last season that I started to feel a yearning calling me back to watch. The Knicks winning a championship this year is epic for the franchise, for this city and for the team’s fans all over the world. For me, it could usher in a new era for my relationship with basketball in which I see it as a way to remember and celebrate joyful memories with my mama who I know will be shouting her support for the team from the heavens.
So the takeaway from this week’s article is that when you get an idea for content, don’t stop yourself from creating it because someone else has already done it. There isn’t a topic in the world that hasn’t been discussed. What makes the content unique is your take on it, your story related to it, your voice. Write it, record it, draw it, make it and post it.
Is there a post you’ve been wanting to create but you feel like it’s been said before? What’s the unique take you have on the topic, make that the central focus of your content.
Is there content you created and didn’t post because you saw someone post something similar? If it’s still relevant, go ahead and post it now.
Want to add to something that somebody said? The platform tools are built for that! Greenscreening, dueting, commenting: These features were built for encouraging people to engage with each other’s content.
This mini-documentary on the Knicks YouTube channel is a great primer for Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the finals. Go New York, Go New York Go!!
Wepa! June Means It’s Time For The National Puerto Rican Day Parade
I’ve got Puerto Rico on my mind because it’s now officially less than a month before I get to see Bad Bunny in concert for his album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, which is an homage to his island home. It’s also fitting to talk about Puerto Rico because June is Caribbean Heritage Month AND the month that the National Puerto Rican Day Parade is hosted in New York City. Established in 1958, it is considered the oldest celebration of the Latin American diaspora in the United States. The parade takes place every 2nd second in June along NYC’s renowned Fifth Avenue and is a celebration of Puerto Rican living on the Island and everywhere around the world, the full diaspora. So if you’re starting to see Puerto Rican flags creeping into your social media feeds, now you know why.
I am not Puerto Rican but my mom was raised, for part of her life, by a Puerto Rican woman and so that culture became part of her culture, and subsequently part of my home culture. Three of my Peruvian uncles married Puerto RIcan women and thus several of my cousins are half Puerto Rican. My niece is half Puerto Rican. And lastly, my best friend is Puerto Rican and after my parents passed, I spent a lot of major holidays with them. I have marched in the Puerto Rican Day Parade about 4 times.
Daddy Yankee Named Grand Marshal of the 2026 National Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/bernadette-giacomazzo/daddy-yankee-puerto-rican-day-parade-nyc
Here’s a link to a 2026 Playlist inspired by the parade
If you’re in in or near New York City and have never gone to the parade, here are some good tips:
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Other Platform, Algorithm and Culture Updates In Brief
June also means the FIFA World Cup is upon us and with it will come many cultural updates to share in the weeks ahead. I love this activation by FanDuel Canada that was built on the insight that many Canadians will also root for the countries of their heritage. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2c2I6hRat/?igsh=MTAxbXlpZngxdXgxMQ==
Ever Wonder How Much Content Creators Charge For Posts? Well, content creator Alex Petrakieva who has 525K followers on TikTok and 484K followers on Instagram decided to reach out to some of the creators who follow her and conduct an informal survey. In this Reel she breaks down the fee ranges based on follower count. The ranges are wide but it’s a helpful frame of reference worth saving if you’re considering working with content creators for your brand or interested in working with brands as a content creator so that you can ensure you’re charging what you’re worth. https://www.instagram.com/p/DYrq5elN3W7/
You Can Now Save Clips From Podcasts on Spotify. You can share the clips or save them for later reference. This is Spotify leaning into the way that people already consume podcast content. They want to quickly revisit the moments that mattered to them and share the exact snippets with others. Now you can access your clips and times stamps from the “share” icon. https://newsroom.spotify.com/2026-05-27/podcast-clips-save-share-moments/
It’s Official, Your Follower Count on LinkedIn Has No Relevance On Your Post Reach. We’ve known this for a while now because we’ve heard the woes from people with high follower counts about their reach plummeting in the last year but now there’s data about what does impact your reach on the platform. 1) Two or three themes, posted consistently, do more for reach than any amount of audience growth, 2) A focused employee with a few thousand relevant connections will routinely out-distribute a company page with hundreds of thousands of followers and 3) Impressions relative to follower count, early engagement rate, and reach among non-followers are the best indicators of post performance. https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/follower-count-stopped-driving-linkedin-reach
Speaking from someone who also grew up with a channel change during commercials father, it turned me from a met fan into a yankee fan!